WHY WE SHOULDN’T WORRY ABOUT DIGITAL GENERATION

Responding to my article where Wilfred from Mujwa, Meru, Kenya wanted to know whether Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, and whether Jesus had sexual relationship with her, John Robert writes via Facebook:

“In one of the recent sermons in church, the pastor talked of Post Modernity, that is, the tendency of the modern generation to think beyond the limits as provided in the Holy Bible and effort to try and provide certain answers to unclear and controversial circumstances.

I always think religion is all about unquestionable belief whose practicability can never be found in the modern world. It therefore my opinion that as Christians, we take everything as it is in the Bible lest the religion loses its meaning to us and we get lost into this world. Thank you Father”.

John Robert has raised a very important issue. This is the worry of some preachers today. Rev Fr Gabriel Atieno Okinyo from Homa Bay Catholic Diocese raised the concern recently during the home coming mass of Rev Fr Collins Omondi Odiero at Ng’owu sub parish, Ojolla parish.

In his homily based on holiness and holy things, Fr Okinyo said that digital era is almost over powering religious faith. He argued that in digital era people are slowly losing the meaning of Holy Mass and church in general, saying that instead of participating in mass some people are busy twiting and charting on Facebook.

What must not be denied however, is that social media is now part and parcel of everyone’s life. Social media has made people come together. Today, most young age people right form the age 12 are socializing getting away from there studies. Young generation prefer to socializing than going out to have some physical exercises.

Pollster and researcher George Barna writes that those born between 1984 and 2002 constitute the millennial generation. They are called millennials because they came of age at the beginning of the new millennium. They are “digital natives” who have always had access to cable or satellite TV and cellphones.

They have no memory of life without the Internet. A recent publication notes that “‘for Millennials, everything begins and ends with social connections’” and that “80-90 percent . . . uses social media.”

Millennials enjoy working collaboratively and 75 percent say they would like to have a mentor! They are open to new experiences and have transcended some of the barriers of previous generations. They have a great appreciation for diversity, and among them, interracial friendships, dating, and marriage are unexceptional.

The good news is that most young people still maintain their faith and like going to church. A Gallup poll in 2000 found that about one-quarter of people ages 18 through 29 read the Bible weekly — about half the rate of those 65 or older.

Over the past three years, the percentage of those who are skeptics or agnostics toward the Bible has almost doubled, up from 10 percent in 2011 to 19 percent in 2014. Skeptics are defined as those believing that the Bible is just another book of stories and teachings written by men.

From the adults who say they increased their Bible reading, 26 percent said it was because they downloaded the Bible onto their smartphone or tablet. Another 10 percent said that watching The Bible TV miniseries spurred them to read their Bibles.

Although for some the use of social media in every waking hour is considered a time waster or an ‘on the side’ business tool, for the younger generations social media has been easily adopted as a multi tasking communication time saver.

We must also accept that in history methods of communication have shifted from the quill to the biro pen, from telegram to phone calls, from letter to email. Now social media is the foundation of communication for the next generation. In order to do business with them you will need to join them.